Ozaki Yukio

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Ozaki Yukio (1917)

Ozaki Yukio ( Japanese 尾崎 行 雄 ; born December 24, 1858 in Matano , Sagami Province (today: Sagamihara ); † October 6, 1954 ) was a Japanese politician and is considered one of the fathers of Japanese parliamentary democracy.

Live and act

Ozaki Yukio was born in Sagami Province in 1858. From 1874 to 1876 he attended the Keio Gijuku , a private school founded by Yukichi Fukuzawa , from which the Keio University would later emerge. On the recommendation Fukuzawas he was chief editor of the 1879 Niigata Shimbun , a local newspaper in the Niigata Prefecture . During his stay in the prefecture, Ozaki helped set up the prefecture parliament there.

Ozaki was elected to the Tokyo Prefecture Parliament in 1885, but had to leave the prefecture in 1887 as his name was among those of the 600 political activists banished from the capital for three years in order to maintain public order. Ozaki subsequently traveled to the United States and the United Kingdom . In 1889 he finally returned to Japan. In 1890 he was elected to the Japanese House of Commons , which met for the first time after the Meiji Constitution came into force . He kept his seat there for the next 63 years. In 1898 Ozaki became Minister of Education in Prime Minister Ōkuma's cabinet . In his second cabinet he was Minister of Justice from 1914 to 1916.

In 1903 Ozaki was appointed mayor of Tokyo. During his tenure, which lasted until 1912, he gave the city of Washington, DC along with Takamine Jōkichi 3,020 Japanese flowering cherries , which were planted in West Potomac Park .

In the years that followed, Ozaki campaigned primarily against the increasing influence of the military and the threat of militarization. During the Manchurian Crisis in 1931, he stayed in the United States at the invitation of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace . As a result of the entry of Japanese troops into Manchuria, Ozaki traveled on to Europe and did not return to Japan until 1933.

After the Second World War he campaigned for the relaxation of American-Japanese relations. In 1953 he was made an honorary member of the Japanese parliament and an honorary citizen of Tokyo.

Ozaki died on October 6, 1954 at the age of 95. In 1960, the Ozaki Memorial Hall was built in his honor near the Japanese parliament building.

Fonts

  • Ozaki Yukio: The Autobiography. The Struggle for Constitutional Government in Japan. Translated by Fujiko Hara. With a foreword by Marius B. Jansen. Princeton University Press, Princeton 2001 (preview).

Web links

Commons : Ozaki Yukio  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Remarks

  1. ^ History of the Cherry Trees. In: NPS.gov (English).
Japanese name: As is common in Japan, the family name comes before the first name in this article . Thus Ozaki is the family name, Yukio the first name.
personal data
SURNAME Ozaki, Yukio
ALTERNATIVE NAMES 尾崎 行 雄 (Japanese)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Japanese politician and one of the fathers of Japanese parliamentary democracy
DATE OF BIRTH December 24, 1858
PLACE OF BIRTH Matano , Sagami Province (today: Sagamihara )
DATE OF DEATH October 6, 1954